OF ODD TREASURES 135 
Scheuchzeri, a neat, thrifty thing, about a foot high or so, 
with round heads of deep blue bottles. The others are 
similar, but a trifle less distinguished. All these plants 
are very easy to deal with, and, I think, prefer rather 
moister treatment than the others, in shady corners of the 
rock-work. My best Scheuchzeri was collected by me 
once, without my knowledge, in a clump of Anemone 
narcissiflora that I consoled myself with one barren 
dreary afternoon on the Schynige Platte above Inter- 
laken. It was already late autumn, and everything was 
over, and all the mountain-panorama was cold and cloudy 
and grey. But I saw the Anemone’s leaves, and made 
good the lost day by grubbing him up. And when the 
clump was well-established in the old garden, lo and 
behold, it consisted not only of the Anemone but also of 
Phyteuma Scheuchzeri, Geranium sylvaticum, and the 
little Snow-Crocus. Now for many years they have been 
fighting the matter out between them, and I am inclined 
to put my money on the Phyteuma, which seems to be 
crowding the others out one by one. The Geranium will 
very likely go soon; the Crocus, I believe, has gone; the 
Anemone shall never go, if I have to redress the balance 
of the world by making an artificial clearing in the midst 
of the Phyteuma.? 
As for Phyteuma orbiculare, his round heads of deep 
blue on their tall stems may be seen here and there in 
our south-country meadows. On the Ruff above 
Abinger, for instance, he grows all over the place—nor 
need one have any scruple about saying so, for, first of all, 
the plant abounds there, and, in the second, the man, nor 
the million men, have not yet been born, who could 
eradicate a flourishing Phyteuma. Such a silly name to 
* Latest news: The Phyteuma has abruptly, irrelevantly expired, like 
Salammb6, in the very hour of victory : the Geranium and the Anemone 
now have to fight an internecine duel. 
